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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26185063">Jiggly, Stinky, Day of Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkspacelord/pseuds/darkspacelord'>darkspacelord</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Invader Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Puppy Love, Romantic Fluff, Valentine's Day Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:21:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,179</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26185063</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkspacelord/pseuds/darkspacelord</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dib has feelings. Zim has feelings. But will these two idiotic kids ever confess to each other on Valentine's Day or be trapped in a permanent pinning hell? Tune into this fanfic to find out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dib &amp; Zim (Invader Zim), Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>66</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Jiggly, Stinky, Day of Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>What did it mean, to feel your heart race and feeling like there were butterflies in your stomach? Metaphorically speaking of course, Zim had yet to place any inside of Dib while performing an experiment. What did it mean to be unable to get the thought of them out of your head even late at night to the point that you fill your room with drawings of them? What did it mean when you only thought about them harder when they hid in a toilet for months?</p><p>It meant you really, really despised them, Dib told himself.</p><p>Yet, Dib still sat there in his skool desk wondering why he couldn’t get Zim out of his head. He had once wished Zim would disappear so he could stop thinking about him only to discover that when Zim did disappear it only made him anxious for his return. Or at least he thought he felt anxious, in a way it felt almost like eagerness. </p><p>And admittingly Dib could only make sense of some of the feelings he had towards Zim. </p><p>He only thought about Zim a lot because he really wanted to find a way to stop him. He only got nervous around Zim because he never knew what he was up to. And he had only let himself hide in his room for months not because he felt depressed about Zim not being there but because he knew Zim must’ve been planning something diabolical and he really wanted to stop him. It was normal, of course, that sometimes he found it hard to look at his enemy, it was because he hated him. The nervous feelings were only coincidental. </p><p>And the fact Dib was sitting there at his desk, picturing Zim in his head and imagining his voice and smiling while doing it really meant nothing. Or at least Dib hoped. He couldn’t really like Zim, could he? </p><p>Dib wasn’t sure what it was about Zim that made him smile. He was weird looking and he was an alien! Dib knew he didn’t particularly like aliens. He only had a few crushes in the past and they had always been on someone who was human. But somehow Zim was different.</p><p>Zim seemed anything but appealing when Dib first met him. He looked even worse to Dib in his disguise, with those eyes that were way too large to ever look human and the fact he didn’t even have a nose and ears like normal humans do. He hated the weird teeth he had and the disturbingly long tongue. </p><p>But that was before Zim really knew him. That was before they were constantly competing with each other and trying to stop one another. That was before they were forced to work together multiple times to defeat a common enemy. That was before Dib saw his enemy lying on the floor, crushed to think he had disappointed the Tallest who must’ve been like parents to him and knowing he would feel the same if he knew he had disappointed his dad. </p><p>Once Dib came to know him, that was when the feelings started. That was when everything he once thought was ugly about Zim only felt unique and perhaps, actually kind of cute.</p><p>Dib felt disgusted even thinking about the word. He couldn’t really think this weird looking alien was cute, could he? And why, Dib wondered, did he sometimes wish Zim would hold him, especially ever since Keef forced him to hug Zim. Why did he secretly enjoy it?</p><p>Dib only briefly thought about the fact he had never crushed on a boy before. But he quickly pushed the thought away, far too focused on how horrible and wrong it felt that he was crushing on his enemy! He looked at Zim briefly and swallowed hard. He hoped that Zim would never find out about these feelings he was having. He felt his face grow red, wondering if this was just a normal part of growing up developing weird crushes.</p><p>    Dib pictured Zim standing in front of him laughing at how ridiculous it was that he would have a crush on him. He doubted Zim would ever feel the same about him, he probably wasn’t capable of feeling romantic love towards anyone. Dib imagined just how crushed he would feel if Zim rejected him, far worse than any painful experiment Zim had put him through. </p><p> </p><p>At the other end of the classroom Zim sat there, thinking of his new brilliant plan. It was once again Valentine’s Day, that strange holiday on earth where the humans shared their disgusting love towards each other. But disgusting or not, Zim knew it was pain based and there was a particular student in the classroom he wanted to inflict pain towards.</p><p>Zim marched across the classroom and climbed onto Ms. Bitters desk before pulling out a piece of paper. Ms. Bitters hissed but Zim ignored her as he unfolded the paper and cleared his throat. He remembered how Tak had written a poem for him the same time last year and he hoped he had replicated the humans’ art of poetry just as well as she did.</p><p>“As is customary for you human worm children, which I am one of, I have written a ‘love’ poem,” Zim said and Dib raised his eyebrow. Zim glanced at the paper. “Dear Dib.”</p><p>“Wait, Dib?” Dib questioned and his face turned bright red.</p><p>“I find your rather abnormally large head is not quite so hideous and your horrible stench to be familiar and comforting.” Dib slowly sunk behind his desk. “Roses red, violets are blue, I never smelled anyone who stunk like you.” </p><p>“Thank you Zim that was awful,” Ms. Bitters said. “Now sit down!”</p><p>    “Ms. Bitters?” Dib said, the only part of him above the desk was his raised hand. “Can I be transferred to the underground classroom?”</p><p>“No, that’s only for when a new student comes in to replace you,” Ms. Bitters said. “Which I’ve heard will never happen specifically for you or Zim. I’m not allowed to give a reason why.”</p><p>“What did you think of the poem, Dib?” Zim said with a smirk. “Are you writhing in pain yet?”</p><p>“Only from the embarrassment!” Dib said. “That was awful!” He lowered his voice. “You aren’t really saying you like me, are you? This is just some sort of plan right?”</p><p>Zim pulled out a bouquet of wilted flowers from seemingly nowhere. He smiled as he shoved them in Dib’s hand.</p><p>“Uh, Zim why are you giving me flowers?” Dib asked. “What are you planning?”</p><p>“Since human love is full of pain, I’ve decided to give you my ‘love’,” Zim said with a sinister smile.</p><p>“What? Pain isn’t a part of expressing love, you dumbass!” Zim stepped away from him and bees flew out of the bouquet. Dib screamed and quickly ran off as the bees chased him. Zim laughed as he watched.</p><p>Zim placed a tray of meat candies on Dib’s desk while he was away and placed a card of Zim and Dib holding hands on top. He left and sat in his seat, waiting for Dib to return.</p><p>Short while later, the door swung open revealing Dib, his head incredibly swollen from the many sting bites. He glared at Zim and said, “I hate you.”</p><p>    Dib stopped just before the meat candies and turned towards Zim. He picked up the card and stared at it for a while before tearing it apart. As Zim watched, it somehow hurt him to see Dib tear it apart. He expected Dib to return the pain from what he knew about love but he didn’t expect it quite like this.</p><p>    Zim remembered the night before how he stayed up late in his lab researching everything he could about human affection. It bewildered him but fascinated him that humans had these rituals with one another. He had already known there was a lot of pain involved and he and Dib had shared many moments of causing one another pain.</p><p>    Zim had pondered for a long time after coming to that realization. He hadn’t recalled any other species demonstrating love by being enemies but perhaps humans were different. And to other humans what he had with Dib was considered ‘love’. That was when he thought of his brilliant plan - to learn more about human love by expressing it towards Dib and perhaps Dib could suffer greatly because of it.</p><p> </p><p>    “Oooh, looks like the two weirdos like each other,” Jessica said. </p><p>    “Yeah, look at those two weirdos, I bet they are going to kiss,” Chunk said. The class murmured to each other. Gretchen glanced at her desk, tears in her eyes.</p><p>    “Wait, no! I don’t like Zim!” Dib shouted but it was too late, everyone was talking about them and he only felt desperate to escape.</p><p>    Dib quickly fled the classroom, unsure of his destination. He only knew he had to escape. Eventually he had exited the skool and ran nearly half way home until he became so tired he had to sit on the sidewalk. He looked at his reflection in the puddle and was relieved that at least the swelling from all those sting bites had gone down.</p><p>    Dib knew he should be in skool but he was too afraid to go back. This was the worst thing that could’ve happened, Dib felt, and yet there was a part of him that was hoping it was more than just Zim’s plan to ruin his life. Maybe this really was what Zim thought expressing love meant.</p><p>    A while later, he noticed Zim approaching him. He turned to him and said, “Come to express your love again?” Dib scoffed. “I don’t even care. Nothing could be worse than the embarrassment I feel.”</p><p> </p><p>    Zim sat down beside him. Dib seemed far more upset than usual, and it bothered him. He wasn’t sure why, he felt he should be happy to see Dib suffer. But whatever Dib was feeling, it didn’t feel right. What was the point if Dib wasn’t going to hurt him back?</p><p>    “Love isn’t about pain,” Dib said. “It’s about the squishy nervous feeling people get for each other.” Squishy nervous feeling? Zim felt perplexed. It was true that sometimes he felt that way around Dib. He wasn’t sure what it was but perhaps it came when you truly hated someone. </p><p>    “Humans consider hate to be love?” Zim asked.</p><p>    “No!” Dib said. “Love doesn’t involve any hate, pain, or anything like that! It’s about wanting to hold hands, and kiss and do gross stuff I guess. I’ve never been in love.”</p><p>    “Nonsense! I get squishy nervous feelings around you and I still hate you!” Zim subconsciously slid his hand on top of Dib’s.</p><p>    Dib looked down at their hands and said, “Zim, you do realize your hand is on top of mine?” Zim pulled back his hand, horrified. Though admittingly, he didn’t really want to pull his hand away. “It’s okay Zim, maybe I, maybe I kind of feel the same about you.” Dib looked away. “Love is weird I guess.”</p><p>    Zim reached his hand out and grabbed Dib’s. It did feel strangely nice just to hold Dib’s hand in his. How could it be that he didn’t truly hate Dib? Love wasn’t something that existed in Irken culture, not even platonic love, it was something that always existed in other cultures. Maybe he had spent far too long on earth, he was starting to experience things he never would have on Irk.</p><p>    “You really don’t think I’m hideous?” Dib said. It was true, he had only called Dib hideous to insult him, but he didn’t really believe it. He didn’t even mind his rather large head, which was undeniably a little large. Humans did look rather odd to him but was still pleasant to look at. The other kids thought Dib’s glasses and coat made him look dorky but there was a certain charm about it that Zim liked. </p><p>    “Perhaps Zim likes the way you look,” Zim said. “Slightly.”</p><p>    “So you think I’m cute too?” Dib asked.</p><p>    Zim paused. “Yes.” </p><p>    “And you find my smell comforting?” </p><p>    “It does remind me of you.”</p><p>    “Hey Zim, uh,” Dib said as he turned away. “Do you want to watch Mysterious Mysteries together some time?”</p><p>    “Yes,” Zim said. “If Dib would like to play Super Piggy Racing with me?”</p><p>    “Okay but no cheating. You better not do anything to my controller.”</p><p>    “Zim would never cheat.”</p><p>    “Even if I beat you?”</p><p>    Zim laughed. “You could never beat me, the best gamer Zim!” </p><p>    “We’ll see about that.” Dib stood up. “I can predict your every move Zim! I know you!”</p><p>    Zim stood up. “Oh? Then predict this, Dib-love!” Zim leaned in and kissed Dib on the lips. Dib flushed red.</p><p>    “Huh, uh, wow,” Dib said, smiling. “That was my first kiss.”</p><p>    “And mine,” Zim said as he looked away. </p><p>    And from that moment on, just like fate, the two young boys, galaxies apart but perfect for each other in every way, were in love.</p>
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